A Chicago-based company has said it will employ 500 people making computer casings in Tallaght, and another 500 in Cork. Applied Power Incorporated plans to take over the enormous factory at the heart of the town, left empty with the closure of Packard Electric.
"I think 20 months after the closure of Packard people, many people were beginning to wonder would we ever see anything going into that plant," said the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Ms Harney.
Ms Harney, who represents the constituency as a TD, said she had pulled out all the stops to persuade the company to come to Ireland, including a personal visit to Applied Power's chief executive last August. The firm already employs some 130 people at C-Fab, also in Tallaght, and 220 through its subsidiary Hormann Electric in Cork.
IDA Ireland executives, who have been under enormous pressure to replace the 800 jobs lost at Packard, pointed out that the new plant was not an exclusively high-tech project and would require a broad mix of skills. The Cork plant, which will mainly manufacture computer boards, will also require a range of skills.
Although IDA Ireland would not say how much the State had contributed to the £29 million project, sources said the agency did not pay over the odds to entice Applied Power into the expansion.
"This project pays for itself through the economy within 11 months, and the exchequer payback is less than three years," one source said.
It is understood that the deal reached a most difficult stage when IDA executives had to try to persuade General Motors, the owner of the Packard site, to sell it for industrial use. The US multinational was aware that it could get a far greater price than the State was willing to pay by selling to a property developer, who would have razed the factory and built houses.
"It was tricky," said one source. "Let's just say that GM have extensive interests in this country, and they were reminded of this."
Tallaght, with a population of 90,000, 30,000 of whom are under 20 years of age, has a higher rate of unemployment than most areas.
"This announcement will be very much welcomed here, where good jobs are needed," said Mr Charlie O'Connor of Get Tallaght Working, the local employment lobby group.
Mr Conor Lenihan, who along with every TD for the area attended the announcement in the Regional Technical College, stressed that despite political differences local representatives and agencies pulled in unison at times such as these. He paid tribute to IDA Ireland as well as to Ms Harney and Mr Pat Rabbitte, TD, for their efforts.
The complete Tallaght and Cork operations will have an annual payroll of £13 million, and will spend a further £25 million on Irish raw materials and services.
Sources said the company's plans for the future were "conservative", and that there was a significant that it would expand over the next few years. The Tallaght plant alone, which is 12,000 sq m (130,000 sq ft), is built beside at least another six acres of usable space.
The Tanaiste gave details of two further job projects. Flightbookers, a British direct-selling travel agency specialising in long-haul scheduled flights and customised travel services, is to establish a call-centre in Dublin, she said. The development will create 115 jobs.
Olympic Amis, currently with a staff of 24 in in Dublin's Hatch St, is to create another 50 jobs. The company offers software solutions to business and specialises in business information applications based on the IBM AS/400 platform.
